Google adopts delivery-service model, targets Amazon

AlistairBarr

RolfeWinkler

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Google Inc. is expanding its delivery service and will start charging a membership fee, intensifying its battle with Amazon.com Inc. for consumer spending.

Starting this week, Google
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will charge $10 a month, or $95 a year, for unlimited same-day or overnight delivery on orders over $15. Nonmembers will pay $4.99 an order, or $7.99 if the order costs less than $15. Until now, the deliveries had been free.

The service, initially named Google Shopping Express but now known simply as Google Express, lets customers place orders online for products from physical stores run by retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp.
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Staples Inc.
US:SPLS
and Walgreen Co.
US:WAG

Google said it is expanding the service to Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago on Tuesday. It previously served the San Francisco Bay Area and parts of New York City and Los Angeles. The company is also adding retailers, including PetSmart Inc., Vitamin Shoppe Industries Inc. and Sports Authority Inc., and it has begun testing deliveries of some fresh food in the San Francisco area.

Amazon’s
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Prime program, which includes unlimited two-day delivery, costs $99 a year. The company’s Prime Fresh grocery-delivery service membership is $299 a year, and it includes unlimited same- or next-day delivery for orders of at least $35.

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